


Come Back to Me

by IAmWhelmed



Category: Paranatural (Webcomic)
Genre: Angst, Gen, M/M, Romance (if you read it that way)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-04
Updated: 2015-04-04
Packaged: 2018-03-21 06:37:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3681783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IAmWhelmed/pseuds/IAmWhelmed
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He hated keeping secrets and he hated keeping secrets from a kid he knew was out of the loop. Isaac had been insufferable that day and Max wasn't putting up with it, but what if there was a good reason for it?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Come Back to Me

It’d been a long time- too long. It’d been too long since they’d talked. Max would see Isaac in the hallways, but they never made eye contact (at least, Isaac didn’t. Max tried not to but he failed most of the time).

The rest of the school year had passed and summer had come and gone, all without so much as a word from the medium. He hadn’t talked to Isabel or Ed either, from what Max heard- which wasn’t surprising.

How long had it been since Isaac visited the clubroom? How long since he tagged along on a mission? How long had it been since Isaac quit the Activity Club with no warning, no notice- nothing?

It’d been too long.

Had he done that to Isaac? In all truth, Max didn’t know what was wrong or what he did to push Isaac away. If he knew he would have fixed it already. Isaac would already be tossing lightning at spirits or reacting to his puns or getting mad at Isabel and Ed and Spender.

That one day Isaac had been acting funny- shrugging Isabel off and glaring at Max and talking with so much venom in his voice- was the last they’d seen of him, really. After that day Isaac stopped showing up much of anywhere. He didn’t come to club. He didn’t come to the corner store. He didn’t even go to school for a good- what was it- week?

Max had been angry for a long time, too. He didn't owe Isaac anything! He didn't make promises for that exact reason, so what kinda nerve did Isaac have to pin something like that on him? After a few weeks, the anger slowly faded and Isaac's absence really started hitting him. One week was odd. Then another week flew by- then another and Isaac still didn't show up to the clubroom. Yeah, Isaac had been a jerk, but that didn't mean he just wanted him gone!

Max hadn’t known Isaac very long, and admittedly he poked fun at the medium for becoming attached so soon, but in all truth, Max had become attached too.  
That was why the idea that he’d hurt Isaac set off red alarms in his head. Max hated hurting people. He hated keeping secrets and he hated keeping secrets from a kid he knew was out of the loop. Isaac had been insufferable that day and Max wasn't putting up with it, but what if there was a good reason for it?  
From his seat in their eighth grade classroom, Max’s eyes landed on the boy who could have been his friend. Isaac’s eyes were cold and sharp and downcast, like usual, and they paid no attention to him whatsoever. Max never saw him interact with anybody and he figured the ever-looming aura of “come near me and I’ll kill you” had been why. Isaac used to be so full of heat and stubborn fire and emotion, but the boy who sat on the other side of the room was cold and distant and kept to himself (and preferred it when others didn’t snoop).

Isaac must have felt eyes on him, because he surprisingly pried his own off the paper on his desk and met Max’s gaze.

For a second, there was a bit of hope that welled in Max’s chest, but it disappeared as soon as it came. Isaac’s eyes narrowed just slightly before returning to his work.

That was a warning.

'Don’t even look at me.'

With a metaphorical tail between his legs and a clenched hand and gritted teeth, Max obliged and focused on his own work. Where there was once anticipation, there was irritation.

Why couldn’t he just talk to them?

Why did Isaac have to handle everything on his own and never apologize and never understand that they wanted him in the club as much as he wanted to be there?

It just had to be the same thing every day. They’d come in, sit down as far as possible from each-other, class would start, class would end and Isaac would be out the door before Max got a word out.

'I never meant to keep secrets from you.'

'I never meant to hurt you.'

'Stop running- just once, you jerk lord.'

There wasn’t a whole lot anyone could do. Isaac would continue building everything up by himself and nobody would be able to read the storm before it was too late, per usual. No matter how hard Max tried, Isaac had built a cement wall between them just as he'd done with Isabel and Ed. He'd tried leaving messages in Isaac's locker and visiting Doorman (who seemed really nervous around him, not that Max could imagine why that might be) and he even waited to catch Isaac at the bus-stop. Nothing worked.

The bell rang and, as Max predicted, Isaac went rushing out the door.  
“Why do you do that?” Max was shouting after him before he even knew his mouth opened. Isaac wasn’t paying attention, anyway, he guessed. He was probably actively ignoring him.

Much to Max’s surprise, Isaac actually stopped and turned around.  
With the same darkened eyes as before, Isaac gripped his notebook tighter and asked “Why do I do what?”

While he was shocked he’d actually gotten a response, he didn’t let Isaac see it. Max stood and matched Isaac’s height, puffing his chest in an effort to hide how his arms were shaking and his breath left him. “Why do you bottle all of that up? Why don’t you talk to us?” Other students went around them to get out of the classroom, but stopped to give them weird looks on their way out. Isaac didn’t seem to notice. His eyes were trained on Max like a lock on a target. He was red at the tips of his ears and white at his knuckles and, as much as he didn’t want to, Max noticed that.

Of course Isaac knew he'd been an asshole. Each passing day Isaac knew what he'd said was wrong. Friendship was built by keeping score- no relationship was. Max had a right to be angry and so did Isabel. There was no excuse- and that's not to say he had any ideas for one. Isaac knew he'd been in the wrong.

If there was one thing Isaac knew even better, though, it was that Max wouldn't forgive him. He didn't deserve it, just like he didn't deserve forgiveness from Isabel and Ed. He'd said and done things there was no going back from. Even so, some part of Isaac prayed to see someone- anyone- reach a hand for him. Nobody ever did. He was angry and he was alone and he had to keep reminding himself that he'd done that. This was his mistake- nobody else's.  
All he wanted was for someone to try.

“Give me a reason to” Isaac mumbled “and I might.”

Max was surprised that there was no offensiveness there. Where he usually heard a threat, he heard pain. He opened his mouth and closed it a few times, eyes casted at the ground. He couldn't look at Isaac anymore. There was nothing to read on his face and it was unnerving.

"Isaac..."

"I know."

'Come back, come back, come back to me like  
You would before you said it's not that easy  
Before the fight, before I locked you out  
But I take it all back now'  
\- If This Was a Movie by Taylor Swift

**Author's Note:**

> Posted this once before, but I really didn't it like it before so I switched it up and rewrote a few parts. <3


End file.
